Mayor's Corner: New Wastewater Facility – Tertiary Component

Wednesday

Jun 19, 2013 at 12:54 PMJun 19, 2013 at 1:13 PM

I recently had the opportunity to spend a day visiting our wastewater facility.

I recently had the opportunity to spend a day visiting our wastewater facility. Mr. John Bracken was kind enough to educate me on the complexities of wastewater management. Here are a few of the lessons I learned: In 2012, we treated 913 million gallons (2,800.6 acre feet) of influent water. We contractually supply 244.5 million gallons of influent water to the base for golf course irrigation. The average monthly evaporation measured by the wastewater facility over the 238-acre pond system in 2012 was 9.6 inches per month (115 inches per year). The above numbers could reflect a potential reuse availability of 668.5 million gallons (2,050 acre feet). There are several variables that might impact the net available use. Because we as a community decided to pass our wastewater fee increase, we are now faced with some interesting and possibly game-changing decisions:n Where are we going to build our new wastewater facility – base property or another location? n What size facility do we need, and how soon can we expect it to be completed?n Should we incorporate a tertiary component to our new facility? The purpose of a tertiary treatment is to provide a final treatment stage to raise the effluent quality to the desired level. If we chose to add a tertiary component to our wastewater facility, very few if any evaporation/settling ponds are needed, reducing or eliminating the evaporation loss. n Considering we process approximately a billion gallons of effluent per year, is there a better use of this water? Could the City sell the water, or inject it into the water table, create a partnership, process our influent into drinking water – Lake Tahoe? Title 22, which regulates the use of recycled water, requires provisions to ensure the safety and quality of influent.n Resurrecting our Sewer Management Plan: How soon can we retrofit aging sewer lines and examine the condition of questionable lines? What is the manpower need to accomplish this effort?These are just a few of the many decisions council and staff are faced with in the coming months. As we all know, water is a very valuable and precious commodity, especially in our desert. These decisions could be beneficial not only from a community sustainability standpoint, but also economically viable as well. I am inviting all interested citizens to attend our infrastructure meetings. They are held on the second Wednesdays of the month at 5 p.m., in the Council Conference Room.

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